April Rains Persist

Despite `Dry Season'

Weekend Looking To Be Soggy, Too

April 28, 1994|By SETH BORENSTEIN Staff Writer

After 30 minutes of huddling by a Publix entrance in Sunrise watching the rain bombard the store's parking lot on Wednesday, Frank Gurtenstein had had enough. Besides, the ice cream in his bag was going soft.

He put a paper bag over his head, stepped into the downpour and sloshed through the ankle-deep water around his car.

"I figured this may go on for 21/2 hours. Might as well take a shot at it," the Sunrise resident said.

It has rained more in the past 10 days, nearly 5 inches, than it normally does the entire month of April. The average April rainfall is 4.3 inches.

Even though South Florida is technically in its dry season, the rain keeps on falling. A half-inch fell on Tuesday and it continued on Wednesday.

Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach reported a quarter-inch of rain on Wednesday; a little more than a half-inch fell on Hollywood and almost three-quarters of an inch dropped on Coral Springs, according to the National Weather Service.

And it will probably keep raining through the weekend and it may even get wetter on Sunday, if that's possible, meteorologists said.

How much longer can it go on? "I guess the Bible says it cannot rain more than 40 days and 40 nights," said National Weather Service meteorologist Wally Barnes.

Unstable moist air has settled in for the long haul over South Florida because other weather fronts have been too weak to shove it out of the way, said Geoff Shaughnessy, a meteorologist for the South Florida Water Management District. So it has rained every day for the past week or so.

"We're a good eight, nine days in this wet cycle," Shaughnessy said. "There's little subtle hints that the rain will decrease, but there's nothing definitive. I won't believe it until I see it."

The daily rain has made life miserable for people who work outside.

Because of the on-and-off downpours, Joe Robbie Stadium groundskeeper Jack Mutz had to work in the same soggy shirt and shorts from 5:30 p.m. Tuesday until 1:15 a.m. Wednesday.

Lately, Mutz said he has dreaded getting out of bed and looking outside and seeing more rain.

"I'm really sick of it," Mutz said. "I'm from Arizona. We barely get any rain down there."

Mutz figured that it has rained more in the past six weeks at JRS than it did in the last six years he spent working in a stadium in Arizona.

At Red The Painter Inc. in Delray Beach, the rain has meant less painting outside and more lifting and carrying materials to make sure they don't get wet, painter Terry Daniels said.

"It has been a pain, aggravating," Daniels said. "It's just an extra hassle."